What would happen to unemployment if the severity of the business cycle is lessened?

Think of the phases of the cycle as a sort of roller coaster. The wilder the roller coaster ride, the more disruption of peoples' business and personal lives there will be. We would prefer a small roller coaster with slight peaks and valleys - the kind for small children. If the business cycle phases are less extreme, there will be less unemployment related to the phases of the cycle. There will still be some cyclical unemployment, but not nearly as much.

There will also still be some unemployment related to the other two types - frictional unemployment (where people are between jobs for a short time) and structural unemployment (caused by the need to retrain and learn new skills to replace obsolete ones). But those types are easier to handle then the large-scale changes that can occur when the business cycle slumps. We saw that in the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and are seeing it currently relatied to the Covid-19 pandemic.